Temple David

What makes a value Jewish? This parallels the question of what makes art Jewish? Is it the subject? The artist?  In the case of Jewish values, is it the value? The fact that it is a Jew living that value?

It seems to me that for a value to be specifically Jewish–though other religions and cultures may share it–is that it is grounded in Jewish texts and mores. That is why Jews can be on both sides of an argument and both sides are “kosher” in that they are grounded in our shared values. That is why it is the how the argument is argued that is of key import: per the Mishnah, it must be “for the sake of heaven.”

It must sound odd as, during our weekly Shabbat morning spontaneous creative prayers for our congregation, America and Israel, I have prayed, “May Israel live by our Jewish values.” Given she is the Jewish State, that seems ironic. Are removing public advertisements with women, allowing buses to be segregated by gender, not allowing non-Orthodox Jews to officiate at weddings and funerals, saying anti-LGBTQ statements Jewish values? For all of these things are occurring in the Jewish State and there is currently great concern as to what this far right government will bring next.

Were we to protest, are we living our Jewish values? Absolutely! Be Abraham as he bargained on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. Use the courts, elections, nonviolent protest. Put democracy into action.

With two sides (at least!) of a Jewish question, the challenge is how to move forward, and the answer is straight from the Mishnah: in a way that is for the sake of heaven. No name calling. No threats. No violence. Yet given the ongoing challenge to find the balance between being a Jewish State and a democratic State, it is also Jewish to use the tools of democracy for the sake of earth.

Let’s celebrate Chanukah per our values.

Let’s tell the story beyond, “You know…it’s about the oil that lasted for 8 days.”  Let us understand our history including the forces at work to assimilate us and the courage it took to fight.

Let’s light the chanukiah as a family whether in person or on zoom.  Let us tell stories about that chanukiah–was it from a Bar Mitzvah or a wedding?  Was it purchased in Israel?  Was it homemade?  Does each person in your family light their own?

Let’s bring light in every way we can–light that is measured in time more like the ever-lit eternal light than the 44 candles in a box.  Let that light be the light of compassion and understanding, respect and inquisitiveness, pride, and self-respect, learning and exploring.

Let’s remember Mattathias, Judah and his brothers who were nicknamed Maccabee (Hammer) because they hammered away at the Syrian Greeks who tried to take away their religious freedom.  Let us understand that important issues take ongoing work, chipping away a bit at a time.

Let’s play a competitive game of dreidel and relish in the stack of gelt that is won rather than only measuring gifts by their cost or exclusiveness.

Let’s eat latkes and other treats from around the Jewish world and celebrate our Jewish diversity one bite at a time.

Let’s give ourselves an 8-day gift of pride, joy, engagement, and light.

Happy Chanukah!

Delivered on World AIDS Day at Good Shepherd Wellness

I am honored to be here… and wish that there was no such thing as World AIDS Day. I wish there was no such thing as AIDS. I wish there was no such thing as a single designated day each year to remember this epidemic and the precious lives it has taken. I wish that love and advocacy and support would spread infectiously throughout the calendar. I wish that every day the LGBTQ community would feel more love than hate.

A reading by Sidney Greenberg in A Treasury of the Art of Living:

Oriental rugs which are found in many homes are all woven by hand. Usually, there will be a group of people weaving a single rug together under the directions of an artist who issues instructions to the rest.  He determines the choice of colors and the nature of the pattern.

It often happens that one of the weavers inserts the wrong color thread. The artist may have called for blue and instead black was used. If you examine an oriental rug carefully, you may be able to detect such irregularities. What is significant about them is that they were not removed. The skillful artist just proceeded to weave them into the pattern.

We too should like the pattern of our lives to be woven exclusively of bright colored threads. But every now and then a dark thread steals into the fabric. If we are true artists of life, we can weave even this thread into the pattern and make it contribute its share to the beauty of the whole.

This reading makes me think of the AIDS quilt. It too is woven together by a group of people: in this case, a group of people tragically connected one to the other, square by square, story by story, emotion by emotion. People who had to choose what to fit on their square… How do we write their name? Do we include a photo? A nickname? Hobbies? Favorites? What colors should be there? How much should the square represent them and how much should it represent our world without them?

Unlike an oriental rug, there is not an overall pattern for each square represents a unique individual. There is not a color scheme, for AIDS attacks without bias. There are not set borders because though remarkable medical progress has been made, AIDS is still taking lives… and adding squares to this quilt. There is not an overseer for God is not behind this disease.

When I think of the similarities to the oriental rug, I think of the stitching that binds these panels one to the other. They are stitched with love and tears. They are stitched by survivors and advocates whose hands are calloused, whose eyes are blurry from tears, whose shoulders are burdened because of all the loved ones they have lost.

But the thread, the thread is as strong as steel. The thread binds lives together, lives that are now only in the past, lives in the present and the lives of the generations to come.

Like all quilts, this one offers the warmth of remembrance, the warmth of embrace, the warmth of a parent tucking a child in for eternal rest, the warmth of a community who celebrates life even as it grieves.

Zichronam livracha.

May the memories of the victims of AIDS be for a blessing.

In this week’s Torah portion  (Gen. 25:8-10), we read:

And Abraham breathed his last, dying at a good ripe age, old and contented; and he was gathered to his kin. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre, the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites; there Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife.

Isn’t that how we all want our lives to end?  At an advanced age, filled with contentedness, buried next to our beloved, with our children overcoming the family strife to stand together honoring us? Yet we know that that doesn’t happen by happenstance. Or magic.  It takes effort.  It takes a lifetime of effort.

In the two week course, “What Happens When I Die… in Heaven?  And on Earth?”  we have been looking into Jewish beliefs and theology as well as practices which are a combination of commandment, tradition, superstition, and family tradition.  And two sessions were not enough so we will be adding a third.  Sharon Brody, Director of Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc.,  and I, together with a cameo appearance by a congregant who is one of a number of members of the New Community Chevra Kadisha (burial society) brought information, fielded questions, and listened to powerful stories.

This is what we know: we don’t need to go through the tension and exhaustion of Abraham when he needed to quickly find an appropriate burial site for his beloved Sarah.  When he died, the burial spot had already been secured so his sons Isaac and Ishmael could use their energy to mourn and laugh and bond together as, different as they were, they took their shared places as the patriarchs of this family. Let us give that gift to our family members.

There are programs that we plan that have good potential for being engaging and meaningful and often they are just that though sometimes, they are not.

The way that Temple David observed the Fourth Anniversary of the attack at Tree of Life * Or L’Simcha had all of the pieces in place.  Here was the “recipe”:

• Work with a group of invested people – we had a small but mighty working group.
• Develop your goal – we decided that we wanted a hands-on experience, as had been our mosaic, that was interfaith and included a Service of Remembrance.
• Make it personal – Rose Mallinger’s (z”l) great niece helped to shape our efforts and it became: “Dozens of Roses in Memory of One Special Rose (z”l)”
• Enact your values – knowing that hatred, antisemitism and anti-immigrant vitriol fueled the attack, we specifically wanted to show appreciation to first responders, a welcome to new immigrants and a hug to those impacted
• Enable participation – we chose to show our values through beautifully decorated boxes filled with rose-shaped cookies which used Rose and her sister Sylvia’s recipe. This is what each box said:
  This year, Temple David’s celebration of life in the aftermath of the attack at Tree of Life Or- L’Simcha on October 27, 2018 is inspired by one of the victims, Rose Mallinger (z”l)*, who is lovingly called Ro-Ro by our congregant, Rachael Farber, her grandniece.

  In Rachael’s words:
  Rose Mallinger was a sweet, loving, and caring woman whose family was everything to her.  Rose and her late husband shared a side-by-side house with her sister’s family where together they raised all of their children. A rose bush grew between the two houses.

  Rose was mercilessly murdered on October 27, 2018 at the Tree of Life Or L’Simcha while attending Sabbath services along with her daughter, Andrea as they did every Saturday.  One impetus for the attack was a recent service in honor of immigrants and refugees. Thanks to the quick and efficient response of the first responders, Andrea survived.

  Rose had quite the sweet tooth.  The symbolism of the rose cookies is both for her name and the bush outside her home.  The recipe was one shared by her and her sister.  These cookies are baked with love and appreciation for the first responders for their support and protection and to welcome immigrants and refugees.

  Today we share Rose’s sweetness with the world: a beautiful rose with no thorns.
  *z”l stands for zichrona livracha in Hebrew/may her memory be a blessing

• Find strength in our neighbors – inviting the interfaith community to bake, to decorate, pack and deliver the boxes and to sing in the choir gave us comfort and hope.
  During the week surrounding October 27^th, over 1500 cookies were delivered throughout our area.  They have long since been eaten but their impact on us, on our interfaith partners and on our corner of the world will stay with us well into the future.

On Yom Kippur, my sermon “Claiming Our Noun,” ended with this:

Let us no longer choose to say I am Jewish, with Judaism on the periphery, the perimeter; in our mouths but not in our souls; in our Hebrew names but not how we think of ourselves; in our life cycles but not in our daily lives; on that other calendar but in not the way we count time.

Rather, let us allow our 4000-year-old history with its mix of tradition and innovation, courage and creativity, values and pride help us maneuver in this world to be among those who accept that it is our job to help fix it. Today: let us reclaim our noun with purpose: I am a Jew.

Here are some practical ways to bring Judaism into our daily that do not take much effort:

• Download a Hebrew-word-a-day-app
• Hang a Jewish calendar in your home and look at the artwork (still available at Temple)
• Download a Jewish calendar onto your phone
• Notice your mezuzah as you pass by
• Read the Torah portion of the week (Start now! We’re right at the beginning!)
• Say HaMotzi before you eat whether you are at home, work or in a restaurant
• Choose your next book by a Jewish or specifically Israeli author
• Hang a work of Jewish art or a home blessing on your wall – and pause to admire it
• Give Judaica (shofar, menorah, Penguins kippah) as birthday presents
• Make sure your investments include Israeli companies
• Buy an Israel Bond as your way of donating to your alma mater
• Put the traveler’s prayer in your car or on your keychain (https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/tefilat-haderekh-the-travelers-prayer/)
• Attend (there’s no preparation!) worship, Torah study, a Judaica class, a social justice program
• Sign up for emails that arrive weekly in your in box and read them such as reformjudaism.org or www.myjewishlearning.org
• Give a proportion of your annual tzedakah to Jewish and specifically Israeli causes
• Choose a vacation spot that includes a Jewish activity or place of interest
• Read your Jewish Chronicle when you receive it
• WhatsApp your Israeli cousins
• Write to an elected official about an issue important to you basing yourself on a Jewish text such as “Love your neighbor as yourself” or “You shall not oppress the stranger” or “You shall not cut down fruit-bearing trees” or “Do not put a stumbling block before the blind”

Let us reclaim our noun with pride: I am a Jew!

It doesn’t have to be complicated.

A simple apple dipped in honey is as sweet and delicious as the most intricate, ornate dish and allows us to celebrate God’s creation in its purest form. The sound of a shofar wakes us up to a call to action in a way that few other sounds can. A phone call to a lonely friend or relative lifts them up far more than a text or an email. A yizkor candle allows the glow of memory to bring a sense of peace whether the relationship was loving and supportive or not. The first sip of water and bite of food after a meaningful fast is a reminder of the blessings of having enough.

Judaism has 613 commandments and thousands of laws and traditions. It is wonderfully embracing and at times complicated and nuanced. Judaism invites us to study, wrestle, engage and act as we enter into 5783.

This year, let us give ourselves the gift of realizing the worth of simple but meaningful acts both in our Jewish practice and beyond. The previous volume of the Book of Life might be closed, but we are already collecting data and stories and acts of generosity for the next volume.

Gotta go – it is time to buy some oranges and apples for the Sukkot fresh fruit drive!

In thinking about how to kick off a religious school year focused on history, I thought about giving each student a Wandering Jew (Tradescantia Zebrina) plant which they could nurture throughout the year, complete with photos and Facebook posts to mark their growth. I had read a brief article which stated that the plant received its nickname because Jews have lived in so many places around the globe and adapted and flourished. The title fit given how this plant seems to thrive with relatively little intervention and the plant fit our history-based curriculum because Jews have adapted to every place from Shanghai to Stockholm to Shaker Heights to Safed.

Then, just days before the school year began, I found myself again looking up its history in order to share it for the first day of school. Lo and behold, the history of the name was much darker.  Per www.bloomboxclub “Why We’re No Longer Using the Name Wandering Jew”:

We assumed the name referred to the Israelites, sentenced to ‘wander’ through the desert in search of the promised land until the last member of the original generation (Moses) dies. [Note: yet another interpretation!]

But further research revealed ‘Wandering Jew’ to be connected to an apocryphal myth, one that has been used to justify anti-Semitism since at least the 13th century.

The story goes that one of the men who taunted Jesus on his way to be crucified was cursed to walk the Earth until the Second Coming. In the context of the observable Jewish diaspora; the displacement of Jewish peoples from the Southern Levant in ancient times, and subsequent statelessness from anti-Semitic regimes, we are profoundly uncomfortable with using this moniker.

As I find myself saying more often these days: Oy vey. At the Weiger school, we decided to go ahead anyway and in so doing reclaim our Jewish pride. On the first day of our school year, which, by the way, was September 11 when antisemites famously blamed Jews for the attack on America, I introduced our special project. I told the students and their parents about the name of the plant and why it connects in with our study of Jewish history around the globe. I also said something like this: “There are other less nice reasons it has this name, but we are going to celebrate this reason.”

Now throughout the Eastern Suburbs, there are Wandering Jew plants growing and thriving and more importantly, there are stay-put Jewish children who are doing the same.

When challenges arise, it is easier to approach them in partnership than alone and it is easier still to approach them when the partnerships have been long-since formed. That is the case with the Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium. Rabbi Edelstein (z”l) ushered Temple David into a sectarian group which transformed it into an interfaith group. For these decades, it has grown, diversified, stood together, withstood internal challenges and most importantly, fostered trust and faith. Faith in both the relationships as well as deepened faith for each of us within our respective religions.

Therefore, when Christian clergy felt the need to create a statement responding to what is referred to as “Christian Nationalism” given the times in which we are living and having expressly reached out to me given concerns about antisemitism, it felt like a group hug. This is what they wrote:

A Statement on Christian Nationalism

Adopted August 6, 2022

We, the majority of Christian members of The Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium, in support of and supported by our non-Christian colleagues and religious leaders, are compelled to denounce the teachings of what is called “Christian Nationalism.” Some of the most common claims of this ideology are that the federal government should declare the United States a Christian nation, that the government should advocate for specifically Christian values, that the government should not enforce a strict separation of church and state, that the government should promote religious symbols (especially Christian symbols) in the public square, and that the government should promote prayer in public schools.

We believe that these concepts are neither Christian nor are they in keeping with the spirit of this nation. In the Christian scripture Jesus is portrayed as one who taught that our greatest commandment is to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:29-31, Luke 10:27-28). Moreover, our foundational political documents call us to seek equality, liberty, and justice for all. The Declaration of Independence declares that “all men are created equal.” Our constitution affirms that our government was established to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” “Christian Nationalism” violates the spirit of these affirmations.

In the light of these texts, we call upon our fellow Christians, our fellow citizens, and all persons of good will, to reject the political and religious claims of “Christian Nationalism” and the embracing of this ideology by persons, organizations, leaders, and candidates. This ideology threatens our democracy and our identity as citizens of the United States of America. We urge our fellow Christians, as well as others, to learn about the claims of “Christian Nationalism,” and its significance for our nation, and to say no to an ideology that rejects “liberty and justice for all.”

July 30-31, 2022

Temple David loves Cross Roads!

What good work you do and what a pleasure it has been to get to know Pastor Lindsay. How lucky you are! How lucky the Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium is! How lucky we in Monroeville are!

It was at one of our First Watch breakfast meetings – that doesn’t mean early in the morning, that means the restaurant First Watch – that Pastor Lindsay and I decided to have this pulpit exchange…Then came the hard question: What would the theme be? We decided on “One God, Two Lenses.”

Let us pause to recognize that that was the challenge: deciding a theme. That meant that there was no difficulty in: Partnering together. Being present at one another’s worship. Opening our doors to one another. Recognizing and honoring our differences. Building on Temple David and Cross Road’s shared past and knowing we have a shared future.

One God, Two Lenses.

It is interesting because “lenses” refers to sight and sight brings us to the beauty that God is everywhere and the difficulty that God cannot be seen.

Over and over in the Torah, including in the 10 Commandments – the second commandment the way the Jewish community counts – we are commanded not to make images and elsewhere in the Torah, we are commanded not to bow down to idols, not to look up to pillars.

Judaism’s interaction with God is not through sight, it is through hearing, through listening. God created the world through speaking: “Let there be light.”  And there was light.In the words of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (z”l), the former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain:

God is to be found not by looking but by listening. He lives in words –

the words He spoke to the patriarchs and matriarchs, prophets and priests;

ultimately in the words of the Torah itself – the words though which we are to interpret all other words.

Why is God revealed in words? Because words are what makes us persons.

Language makes homo sapiens unique. Because we have language, we can think. We can stand back, reflectively, from the data provided by our senses.

We can ask questions. Human beings are the only species known to us

in the universe capable of asking the question, Why?

Because we can speak as well as see, we can imagine a universe unlike the one we have seen every day until now. We can dream dreams, imagine alternatives, sketch utopias, formulate plans, construct intentions. Because of language – and only because of language – we are free and therefore morally responsible agents.

(https://www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/reeh/seeing-and-hearing/)

Elsewhere, Rabbi Sacks writes:

The God encountered by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, by Moses in the burning bush, and by the Israelites as they stood at the foot of Mount Sinai,

came not as an appearance, a visible presence, but as a voice –

commanding, promising, challenging, summoning.

(https://www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/eikev/the-spirituality-of-listening/)

God’s voice is “commanding, promising, challenging, summoning.” Therefore, God’s voice is a reflection of Godself. Ours is the God of Creation, Redemption from Egypt and Revelation. Ours is the God who invites us into partnership through the commandments.

In Hebrew the word for “commandment” is “mitzvah” and it refers to 613 times in the 5 Books of Moses that we hear “You shall” or “You shall not”…

As in: You shall honor your father and mother. You shall pursue justice. You shall leave the corners of your fields for the poor and for the stranger. You shall keep the Sabbath.

And: You shall not bear false witness. You shall not oppress the stranger.

I have heard it said that Judaism is a religion of law and Christianity is a religion of love. Let’s face it: Judaism doesn’t come out so well in that comparison…There is a saying in our tradition: “Turn it, turn it, for everything is in it” (Pirke Avot) meaning: keep looking at texts and situations from every angle. So let’s “turn it.” Yes, Judaism is a religion of law – meaning commandments from God and halacha, law from the rabbis’ interpretations, which continue to this day. They are laws that guide us far beyond the narrow definition of religion as holidays and rituals to the vastness of a guiding us on how to live moral, compassionate, just lives.

One of our evening prayers, Ahavat Olam, begins: “Everlasting love You have offered Your people Israel by teaching us Torah and mitzvot, laws and precepts.”

Judaism’s laws guide us in the world of love:
Love of family
Love of the community
Love of strangers
And all encompassed by God’s love of us by giving us the Torah and our love of God by accepting the covenant.

The watchword of our faith, the Sh’ma as we call it, is found in Deuteronomy 6:4: “Listen Israel, Adonai is our God Adonai is One.”

It continues: “You shall love Adonai your God, With all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your being.

I know that in the Gospel According to Mark, chapter 12, when Jesus was asked what was the most important teaching, he said this one and added: Love your neighbor as yourself, found in Leviticus 19. On this, Temple David and Crossroads agree: He was a star student at religious school!

Let us use this shared teaching as a guide to “seeing” our one God through the Jewish lens. I recognize that translations within Jewish sources and within Christian sources differ.

Love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your being.

Love Adonai your God with all your heart…

Nowadays, we see our hearts – whether romantically or patriotically as we cover it for the Pledge of Allegiance – as the source of emotion. In biblical times, one’s heart was seen as the center of intellect.

We read the 5 Books of Moses, over the course of the year including from the Torah scroll on Shabbat and holidays. But it is not enough to read – or see – the words.

Before we study, our blessing is: Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, who sanctifies us with commandments and commands us to engage with words of Torah. And so we do! We engage! We dissect it and question it and turn it over. We bring our lived experience and our modern values to challenge. We answer a question with a question. After all, since the time of Jacob wrestling with the angel before his reunion with Esau, we are called Yisrael – Israel – God wrestlers.

Some Jews believe the Torah is literally God’s word; Others believe it is written by humans over time, inspired by God, others believe that it is sacred because it has been handed down through the generations. When we study Torah, we do not avoid difficult texts, we dig in. As with an onion, we peel back layer upon layer using different translations, commentaries, and midrashim to better understand. As Torah is revealed, for we see revelation as ongoing, we evolve, as it were.

Thanks to Muslims, in the Koran Jews, Christians and others are called “The People of the Book” out of respect for our sacred books. We love that title!

Love God with all your soul.

Let us note that the Hebrew word for breath and one of the Hebrew words for soul is n’shama. We believe that upon birth, God breathes our souls into us.

In our morning blessings, the prayer Elohai N’shama begins: “My God, the soul You have given me is pure. You created it, You shaped it, You breathed it into me.”

In a creative version of our prayer, we say these words:

My soul came to me pure,
drawn from the reservoir of the Holy.
All the time it remains within me,
I am thankful for its thirst
for compassion and justice.
Let my eyes behold the beauty of all creatures;
let my hands know the privilege of righteous deeds.

(Mishkan T’filah)

Our souls come from God and to God they shall return. And, God-willing, in those decades of time, we will have repaired the world a little. That is what God wants of us; that is what God breathed into us.

How do we love God with our being?

Here is a creative reading from our prayer book (Mishkan T’filah):

Show love with your wealth;
Put your resources toward good purposes;
Serve the Most High with everything you possess. (Talmud)

Those who reject all material possessions;
Who spurn comfort and wealth; who deny the body –
They lose their ability to appreciate life’s value.

Poverty and suffering do not cultivate the love of God.
Rather: learn to love life, live fully;
cherish the world and enjoy its treasures.
Then you will gain a full measure of love.
Then will your heart expand with gratitude.
And only then will you give with a joyful heart.

The way we love God is a reflection of God’s love for us: God gave us the Torah,
God breathed life into each of us, God wants us to use our means and talents to fix the world, or as we often say, to be God’s partner in creation.

One God, two lenses.

Two clergy – female in case you didn’t notice! – one focus. May we continue to learn from one another and to celebrate our similarities and our differences.